Official: Gun Law Unlikely To Be Tightened

October 30, 1987|United Press International

TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Jon Mills said on Thursday he sees little chance the Legislature will reconsider newly liberalized gun laws in the wake of the bloody rampage in a Miami brokerage firm this week.

Arthur Kane, 53, bought his .357-Magnum a day before opening fire on Monday in a south Miami brokerage office where he had watched his investments lose millions in the stock market`s plunge, killing one brokerage official and wounding another before turning the weapon on himself.

Police in Dade County asserted on Wednesday that his rampage might have been prevented under Florida`s old gun laws.

But supporters of the new law -- including Gov. Bob Martinez -- contested Johnson`s assertion, and Mills said he doubted the law would be changed.

Florida`s new gun law, which wiped out previous county ordinances in favor of a relaxed statewide law, gives counties the power to set a maximum 48-hour cooling-off period between the time a person buys a gun or gives ``notification of intent to purchase`` and possession of the weapon.

Previous Dade County laws required gun buyers to wait at least 72 hours before taking possession of a weapon after making their purchase. The old law gave counties wide latitude in setting their own waiting periods.

Under the new law, the cooling-off period for Kane began on Friday when he entered a gun shop near his suburban Dade County home and expressed his desire to buy the weapon, police said.

Kane looked at several guns on Friday and told employees to ``put aside`` a pistol for him, said Cmdr. Bill Johnson, Metro-Dade County police spokesman.

``If he had waited one more day, and the cooling-off period was in effect, the combination might have resulted in two more people being alive,`` Johnson said.